It is so green here!! I don't think that I have ever seen so many trees in my life! I love it! We flew in on Tuesday and we went to the Mission President's house for dinner and we had interviews that night. Dinner was amazing!!! His wife, Sister Griffin, is a super good cook. We had roast and potatoes. The next morning we had breakfast and guess what we ate??? Bisquits and gravy!! My fav.! I was pretty excited about that. After breakfast, we (all of us new missionaries, there were about 12 of us) went over to the stake center in Farragut for Transfer meeting. We had an intro to all things mission. We learned how to use our new debit cards etc. Then the scary part... NEW COMPANIONS! Lol! Luckily I am pretty sure that I have the BEST companion on the face of the earth! Her name is Sister McClelland. She is from Fresno California. She is so much fun and we already have so much in common! Guess what??? She love Saturday's Warrior too!! Tender mercies! I was so nervous! But thank Heavens that someone up there know exactly what I need!
Anyway back to Transfer Meeting.... All of "Newbys" lined up in the hall outside of the chapel and waited until the rest of the missionaries started singing "Called to Serve." We had to walk in and sit on the from row... It was pretty awkward and embarrassing, but oh well. Then after, we had to get up and tell where we were from and give a brief testimony. Then we were off to our new areas. I am living in Johnson City. My area is Watauga. It's a pretty good area. It's been a little slow the last little bit, so there is a lot of work to do. We went tracting Wednesday night and I found my first investigator. Her name is Lucille Weaver. She is about 75 and a little hard of hearing. She is a cute souther baptist lady. I don't know how interested she is in what we are teaching, or if she was just trying to be nice.. LOL
We have a few recent converts that we try to drop in on once a week. My favorite so far is David. David is in his 40's and is a black man. HE IS AWESOME!! LOL and super funny! I love him already. The missionaries that found him found him when he was praying for an answer. Literally, he got off his knees and the missionaries were at his door. He had a hard time quiting smoking, which is a HUGE problem here in the south(Word of Wisdom), But he is doing better. We are trying to get him to get is Patriarchal Blessing and to get to the temple. He is already doing some of his geneology. It's pretty awesome! He has such a strong testimony.
People here in the south have so much faith! It is amazing. They will make great members someday... that is if they let go of their stubborn pride and accept the truth. It's been hard being somewhere so different. It make me miss home and appreciate being surrounded by people who believe what I believe. But it makes me appreciate what I have and the peolple that I have in my life. So many people here have it pretty rough. We live next to The Projects here in Johnson City. They are very humble circumstances to say the least. Our apartment is awesome though.
I am glad that you all are doing well. I wanted to let you know that I will most likely be on line most Monday's around this time, so you can get on here and email me back an forth if you want to... I don't know if you will be to busy or what not. I love you so much!!! Please continue to pray that we will start to see success in this area. Be strong and love one another!! I have also learned the importance of member missionary work. So please if you know of ANYONE who is looking, let the local missionaries know. Last month our mission had 35 baptisms. Of that 2 were from tracting the rest were from member refferals. So let them know. They need your help.
Our mission goal is to baptise 35 this month. So remember to keep that in your prayers too!!
Until next time!!
Sister Christiansen
